Hey arcab, other electrical/plumbing stuff.

[dattack]

Hey arcab,

This is in regards to electrical stuff that you should get for your SW tank.  I mentioned before that I have a 45 gallon reef tank and I was constructing my 120 this week.  Well I was lucky today because my powerstrip almost caused a fire because a RIO pump malfunction and usually those RIO pumps have no ground.  The RIO's prong burned the entire powerstrip causing a massive black cloud in my room.  I turned off all the plugs and I am hoping that the corals all live.

Well anyways, I bought a GFCI to install in my 120 but I never had a chance to install it on the 45 G.  I guess I was lazy but I lucked out that it happened before I went to bed.  I will not make the same mistake again.  So, please get a GFCI install or get one of those GFCI you can plug into the wall.  It will save you and your tank.  I read all those stories about GFCI in reefcentral and bought the GFCI but never installed it and now I know what they mean.

Secondly, buy a ball valve for your return line and input line for your pump.  This will allow you to take out the pump for maintenance.

 

[dattack]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention don't get RIOs! >

 

[arcab4]

thanks for the advice. yeah..i had rios at first..but after doing more research..realized that they weren't good to have..so i returned them. one thing i've learned is to do alot of research before buying. i've returned ALOT of stuff already. haha.

is the GFCI the same thing as a grounding probe?

where do i put the ball valve? input line?

thanks.!

 

[dattack]

Here is the grounding probe/GFCI discussion.

http://www.myfishtank.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=equipment&action=display&num=1006900211

You can put either ball valve in both input and output line.  But I am just going to put it in the output line for now.  It appears that everytime i do maintenance, there is always water in the output line when I detached the tubing from the pump.  This somtimes create a back siphon that floods my floor.  You might not need one given that you have it in sump pump?  But mine is an external pump so one is a must.